Six-hour round? A nasty reality for U.S. Open local qualifiers

The 16th hole of the South Course at Ironwood Country Club in No. 69 on the Desert Sun list of the top 100 holes in the desert.
Marilyn Chung/TheDesert Sun

A view of the golf course from the patio of Ironwood Country Club's newly renovated clubhouse on Feb. 2, 2012. Ironwood has two 18-hole private golf courses. The Par 72 South Course serves as the annual host to a U.S. Open qualifying round, according to the Ironwood Country Club website.(Photo: Sherry Barkas/Mydesert)

The golfer, having shot a round he knew would not advance him out of U.S. Open local qualifying, slumped down into a chair at the scoring table, was quiet for a minute, then let out his frustrations.

“You guys have got to do something about the pace of play,” the exhausted golfer said to the tournament official. “Six-hour rounds?”

This all happened Tuesday at a Open qualifier at Ironwood Country Club in Palm Desert. And yes, the rounds really were right at the six-hour mark. That pace of play had more than a few golfers irritated and was the talk of the players and even tournament officials.

One official sitting on the eighth tee lamented that golfers were an hour behind their projected pace halfway through the 18-hole round.

"I try to get them to pick up the pace, but . . . " the official said, his voice trailing off.

Another official said the players he teed off on the first hole were on time, but something must have happened between the first and fourth holes, because there was a huge delay in play. Now the spacing of the groups was okay, but everyone was an hour behind schedule.

One spectator, watching a group finish its first nine holes, noted that the group teed off at 9 a.m. He looked at his watch that read 12:05 p.m. and just shook his head.

And so it goes with slow play. No one likes it. Few people can tolerate it without making some comment. But nothing ever seems to get done.

Some at Ironwood said they could understand the slow play. After all, the golfers were playing for a chance to reach the U.S. Open, the national championship, so they were going to play with extra focus, and that can slow a player down. And they were playing the South Course at Ironwood Country Club, a tough course that had fast, smooth greens and rough that was a bit longer than normal even for an Open qualifier.

Still, six hours made no sense. Yes, there were players posting scores in the high 80s and even one in the low 90s. But there were mostly scores of 77 or lower from talented players with strong resumes. And this round was slower than rounds on the PGA Tour, where money and livelihoods are on the line.

Officials couldn’t just start handing out penalty strokes for slow play, because who would they penalize? Everyone on the course was well past their normal playing paces, so does everyone get a few strokes for slow play?

Yes, this was far different than your recreational round of golf. The golfers were walking, had caddies and had something on the line to play for. But the truth remains that slow play is prevalent in rounds like the five U.S. Open local qualifiers played in the desert in the last two weeks, on the PGA Tour and LPGA and in your recreational rounds.

There are courses that tout a quick pace of play, but quite often those are private courses with qualify players as members and perhaps not the same number of players trying to get around the golf course as at your local public course.

Pace of play remains one of the problems some point to for either never taking up the game or for quitting the game. Even if you are a fast player, there is not much you can do about slow play. You can only get around a golf course as fast as the group in front of you. Tuesday at Ironwood, that wasn’t very fast at all.

You have to imagine that when it comes time next year for that frustrated golfer who spoke out at the scoring table to send in his entry form and his $200 check for 2019 U.S. Open qualifying, he might remember just how slow play was during this year’s qualifier. That probably won’t stop him from sending in the application. And it is likely that the play might be just as slow next year as this year.

Larry Bohannan is The Desert Sun golf writer. He can be reached at (760) 778-4633 or larry.bohannan@desertsun.com. Follow him on Facebook or on Twitter at @Larry_Bohannan.